Andrew Nicholson photo courtesy Mitsubishi Motors/Kit Houghton
With Radio Badminton on the iPhone having a few hiccups I resorted the Horse & Hound live blog to follow the first day of dressage, accompanied by Radio Badminton when I could get it. A huge thank you to both of these online resources for an entertaining and interesting evening! The first rider, as always, is a test rider. This was 2010 European Young Rider Gold medallist, Emily Parker riding Treefers who rode the 'guinea pig test' to help prepare the ground jury before the first competitor, New Zealand’s Andrew Nicholson on Rosemary Barlow’s Avebury cantered down the centre line to perform a good test for 47.2. The 2009 Badminton winner Oliver (Olly) Townend was supposed to be the dressage opener but three of his horses had been withdrawn earlier on the week – no doubt some are now heading to Rolex Kentucky instead, to be joined by Olly after Badminton. His only ride is now the grey Ashdale Cruise Master, fifth at Luhmühlen last year, and he is scheduled to ride later on Sunday afternoon. Amazingly Olly, 28, wasn’t even born when the double Olympic champion Mark Todd (NZL), 55, made his Badminton debut on a horse called Southern Comfort - and won - 31 years ago. An interesting aside is that his groom that year was a young man called Andrew Nicholson. Mark’s first horse at this year’s Badminton - Major Milestone, scored 62 but as Mark said, this is not his best phase and he gets very wound up with the dressage. The test started reasonably well but errors in the changes and this tension brought his marks down. Mark will also last to go on the former Olly Townend ride, NZB Land Vision, guaranteeing a gripping end to cross-country day on Sunday. Mark is considered to be very on-form at the moment and a possible to be in the top ten at the end of the event on either horse, whatever their dressage scores!
Laura Collett photo courtesy Mitsubishi Motors/Kit Houghton
Badminton debutante, 29 year old Irish rider Aoife Clarke on Vaguely North (owned by Henrietta, Duchess of Bedford) was on early in the day and seemed very happy with the score of 57.2. Another first timer was Laura Collett, the youngest of three 21-year olds riding at Badminton this year, on her horse Rayef. This partnership are previous junior and young rider champions, were 13th at Saumur last year and more recently 8th in the CCI*** at Belton so their performance was highly anticipated. It didn’t disappoint, being impressive enough for the H&H expert commentator Anna Ross Davies to say “that test wouldn’t look out of place at a top dressage competition”. Laura scored 36.5 to take an early lead which wouldn’t be broken that day. After the break, Pippa Funnell had a slightly disappointing ride on Mirage d’Elle but still managed to score 56.7. Much anticipation surrounds Pippa’s return to Badminton, a former three-time winner, after three years. She brings the exciting 10-year-old chestnut Redesigned, a winner of Bramham CCI3* and fifth individually at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ in Kentucky (USA) last year, plus Mirage d’Elle, 15th at Burghley in 2010. Next in was another British favourite who always gets a warm reception by the crowd at Badminton – Mary King on Apache Sauce. Mary, 49 and one of my personal heroes (you never see her with anything but a smile on her face), has been competing at Badminton since 1985. The winner in 1992 and 2000, she has two good rides in the CCI4* on the veteran Apache Sauce and the handsome Imperial Cavalier, fourth last year and on whom she won a world team gold medal. Despite a few glitches, Mary and Apache Sauce scored a very creditable 55.5 to put her well within striking distance for cross country day.
William Fox Pitt photo courtesy Mitsubishi Motors/Kit Houghton
This section was full of British stars including the man who, on top of everything else, won the Ride ‘n Drive at Equitana in Melbourne last year! William Fox-Pitt, who last tasted victory here seven years ago, has won more CCIs (40) than anyone else, and is the only rider to have captured four different CCI4*s. He also won the HSBC FEI Classics™ last year, for the second time. His first ride was on Navigator (Bart), a horse he bought sight unseen from well-known Australian horse agent and rider, Sharon Ridgeway. Navigator had a few head shakes in the counter-canter (fortunately not to the level of Shane Rose’s All Luck in Hong Kong) but otherwise a good test which scored 47.5 – just 0.2 behind Andrew Nicholson but still quite a way behind Laura. William’s second ride Cool Mountain, winner of the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event (USA) 2010 and team gold and individual silver at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™, will be on in the last session of dressage on Saturday afternoon. The French rider Karim Laghouag was riding a good test until he had an error of course and he must have been kicking himself although kept smiling as he left the arena. He and Havenir D’Azac scored 53.5 so it was a real shame about the error then Pardon Me II and Emily Llewellyn came in to score 49.7 and steal the 4th place he’d just taken.
Ingrid Klimke photo courtesy Mitsubishi Motors/Kit Houghton
A few weeks ago I enjoyed watching Ingrid Klimke as the judge of the Dressage Young Horse classes at Dressage and Jumping With The Stars in Melbourne. “Whatever way you look at it, she does a good job on a horse”. Indeed Ingrid did a great job on FH Butts Abraxxas, not the biggest mover in the world but impeccably trained (what else would you expect from Reine Klimke’s daughter?) and so relaxed in all of the work shown. Ingrid scores 8 for her co-efficients and they move into second place on 43.3. However, the score is later revised to 38.7. The first mare in the competition is one well known and loved by Australian eventing aficionados, Carrera. As readers of An Eventful Life will know well, Carrera was competed by Stuart Tinney who co-owned her with Tim Game (Tim has a thing about Porsche cars – his other horses ridden by Stuart were Boxster and now the superstar mare Panamera). Susanna bought both Carrera and Ava from Stuart – Ava sadly died last year but Carrera won the Vairano CCI*** in 2009 and they were on the Italian WEG squad last year. Susanna was doing a cracking test but something happened on the loops and the judge addressed her at the end of the test however the final result was a great score of 44.3 – go Carrera! The general opinion was that the German rider Kai Ruder on Les Prince des Bois was the only one who could now knock Laura over the top spot. Although a good test, it didn’t do enough to upset the leader and Kai scored 45 to put him in fourth place but it was another German rider Marina Kohncke on Calma Schelly who really improved her test as she went along to score 39.8 and put her in second place. So the top ten riders at the end of day one of the dressage are; 1. RAYEF Laura Collett 36.5 1 2. CALMA SCHELLY Marina Kohncke (GER) 39.8 3. CARRERA Susanna Bordone (ITA) 43.0 4. FRH BUTTS ABRAXXAS Ingrid Klimke (GER) 43.3 5. LE PRINCE DES BOIS Kai Ruder (GER) 44.8 6. PHOEBUS Laurence Hunt 45.5 7. MISTER POOH Niklas Lindback (SWE) 46.7 8. AVEBURY Andrew Nicholson (NZL) 47.2 9. NAVIGATOR William Fox-Pitt 47.5 10. KILPATRICK RIVER Elizabeth Power (IRL) 47.7 As it is only Laura’s second four star start (although she is very experienced at junior and young rider levels) it will be interesting to see how she fares over the next few days. Having mentioned the age difference between Olly Townend and Mark Todd at the beginning of this report, it has to be noted that Laura Collett was not even born when Toddy first won at Badminton in 1980. Saturday’s dressage sees the Aussies Paul Tapner, Sam Griffiths and Lucinda Fredericks hit the field so we will be following with eager anticipation of seeing them high in the rankings! On another note Dawn French will be attending Badminton on Sunday and wearing an Easter Bonnet! A sight to be seen and I'm hoping someone will send me a photo! For some great photos around and about at Badminton, check out the daily photo slideshow on the Badminton web site To hear an interview with the overnight leader Laura Collett after her test, click the link below Exit AM - Rachel - Laura Collett
